Herpes simplex virus encephalitis following acute brain injury: illustrative cases.

With the growth of the world population and developments in technology and industry, the amount of waste left to nature is increasing every year. Recently, the amount of waste from plastic products, which have increased in use due to their lightweight, affordability, durability, and ease of transport, has reached an alarming level (Kibria et al. ). The use of plastics has continuously increased from the 1950s to the present day, resulting in environmental pollution and waste problems (Worm et al. ). Plastics thrown into the environment do not only create visual pollution; these products also pose a risk to the environment and living things by breaking down into smaller sizes called ‘microplastics’ (Yee et al. ). Microplastics (MP) are plastic particles less than 5 mm in size (Arthur et al. ). Recent studies show that microplastics are found primarily in aquatic ecosystems (Bertoldi et al. ; Li et al. ), in soil (Ding et al. ), in the air and atmosphere (Huang et al. ; Szewc et al. ). Today, microplastics can even be found in glaciers (Bergmann et al. ). Microplastics have become a serious global problem due to their ubiquity in nature and persistence in the environment (Bertoldi et al. ). Microplastics are inherently toxic to organisms and, therefore, negatively affect human, animal, and environmental health (Laskar and Kumar ; Yee et al. ). Humans are exposed to many types of microplastics through inhalation, digestion, and skin contact (Lei et al. ; Yee et al. ). Recent studies have shown that microplastics have been detected in vital human tissues such as blood, the lung, the heart, and even in human faeces (Lei et al. ; Schwabl et al. ). Studies have identified serious problems such as respiratory and intestinal infections, immune system disorders, neurological disorders, and inflammation in humans exposed to microplastics (Bhuyan ; Gasperi et al. ; Prata et al. ; Yee et al. ). Chronic exposure to MPs causes deaths and various health problems in susceptible individuals even at low doses (Prata ; Prata et al. ). In response to the increasing threat of microplastic pollution, there is a pressing need for new strategies to protect human, animal, and environmental health. One promising approach is the promotion of environmental literacy (EL). Environmental literacy, defined for the first time by Charles E. Roth in 1968 (Roth ) refers to an individual's knowledge, sensitivity, skills, and behaviours about the environment in which the individual is located. In line with this definition, environmental literacy plays an important role in raising environmental awareness in individuals, learning the laws of nature, and protecting and improving the health of ecosystems (Kapan and Gürel ). People with higher levels of environmental literacy are more sensitive, more conscious, and more aware of the environment (Örs ). In this context, environmental literacy can contribute to a better understanding of emerging environmental issues, such as microplastic pollution, by enabling individuals to access, evaluate, and interpret environmental information, thereby raising awareness about the sources, pathways of spread, and potential health effects of these issues.